（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）英汉翻译中结构衔接模式转换的比较研究.pdf

4 摘 要 在翻译过程中对结构衔接的理解会影响对文本衔接的认识同时也会对原语语 篇和译语语篇之间的功能连贯产生影响本论文对英汉翻译中的结构衔接模式进行 了试探性的研究选择了 50篇英文小说语篇及与之相应的中文译文所有的语言素 材都是随机选择的并对这 100 篇语篇的主位推进模式进行了逐一分析通过研究 揭示了英汉翻译中结构衔接的转换规律 对语言素材的分析可以分为两个部分首先论文对 100 篇语篇中所使用的主 位推进模式进行了描述并由此得出了七种模式所使用的次数和频率然后论文 进行了对比性研究通过 50 篇英文语篇和与其对应的 50 篇中文语篇中所使用的主 述位推进模式的一一对比论文总结出了不同的模式在英汉翻译过程中的不同处理 方法在多数情况下译者会遵循原文语篇的主位推进模式但是在研究中也发 现了很多改变原文语篇推进模式的情形譬如说英文中的平行型模式在汉语译文中 通常会转换成延续型模式 文献综述部分分别解释了三组术语的定义主位和述位主题和述题以及主语 和谓语同时作者介绍了一些前人所总结的关于如何在英汉语中区分以上一些术 语的原则在此基础上本文还列举了由一些研究者所提出的结构衔接推进模式 在其后的研究方法部分中作者介绍了具体的研究设计并提出了四个研究问题结 论陈述与讨论部分提供了本文的主要研究成果最后一部分总结了论文的结果并提 出了研究的意义以及局限性 关键词主位 主题 主位推进模式 结构衔接 2 abstract in translating, the awareness of the structural cohesion is conductive to realize the textual cohesion and to approach the functional consistency between the original discourse and translated version. the thesis conducts a tentative study of structural cohesion patterns in english to chinese translation. 50 discourses of english novels and the chinese translation versions are chosen. the language materials are chosen randomly. the 100 discourses are analyzed one by one in terms of thematic progression pattern. a tentative study of two versions intends to reveal the transforming rules of structural cohesion in e-c translation. the analysis to language materials has two components. firstly, by describing the thematic progression patterns used in the 100 discourses, it will provide a clear notion to the times and the frequency of the seven patterns. secondly, by comparing the thematic progression patterns used in 50 english discourses and corresponding 50 chinese discourses, the transforming rules of different patterns in e-c translation will be concluded. on most occasions, the translator will follow the structure of the original texts. however, some situations that change the patterns of structural cohesion are also found in the study, such as the parallel pattern in english version always changes into the extendable pattern in chinese version. in the literature review part, the writer explains the three pairs of terms: theme and rheme, topic and comment, subject and predicate. also, the writer introduces some principles concluded by former researchers to identify these terms both in english and chinese sentences. on the basis of identification of these terms, the thesis displays thematic progression patterns that put forward by many researchers. in the following methodology part, the writer introduces specific research design and proposes four questions for the study. in the results and discussion part, some results and answers for proposed questions are provided. in the last part conclusion, the writer concludes the results that this study got. 3 significance and limitations of the study are also displayed in this part. key words: theme topic thematic progression pattern structural cohesion 独创性声明 本人声明所呈交的学位论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研 究成果尽我所知除文中已经标明引用的内容外本论文不包含任何其他个人或 集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果对本文的研究做出贡献的个人和集体均已在 文中以明确方式标明本人完全意识到本声明的法律结果由本人承担 学位论文作者签名 日期 2004 年 4月 4 日 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留使用学位论文的规定即学校有权 保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版允许论文被查阅和借阅 本人授权华中科技大学可以将本学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检 索可以采用影印缩印或扫描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文 保密 在_年解密后适用本授权书 不保密 请在以上方框内打 学位论文作者签名 指导教师签名 日期 年 月 日 日期 年 月 日 本论文属于 1 introduction translation is a new discipline that needs to draw on the findings and theories of other related disciplines to develop and formalize its own methods. since 1960s, some foreign researchers begin to introduce some related disciplines, such as modern linguistics, psychology, information theory, cognitive science, sociology and literature science, into translation studies. the researchers observe and study translation from various angles of view. from then on, translation studies develop in a way of interdisciplinary transplantation. some theories and concept descriptions are borrowed from other relative disciplines to explain various phenomena and problems that appear in the translation practice. the way of interdisciplinary transplantation provides some new angles for observing this old communicational activity translation. in addition, it strengthens our reorganization to some problems and also it produces some new theory patterns. nevertheless, it is not scientific to transplant one theory to translation study randomly. there are some principles during the process of transplantation. li yunxing (1999) suggests three principles that we can follow in the process of translation: relativity, levelness, and adaptability. relativity refers to the theories that you attempt to transplant should have close relation to the study field of language shift. translation concerns the shift of two languages. naturally, linguistics relates with translation most directly. before 1960s, linguistics is mainly the descriptive study for a single language. it has little value for translation study. with the beginning of “chomsky revolution” in 1960s, linguists pay their attention to the common features of all languages. in addition, there is a rapid development of some crossing disciplines related to language, such as sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. these disciplines provide possibilities to the development of interdisciplinary transplantation relating to translation study. therefore, the interdisciplinary transplantation that regards translation study as receiver and some other relative disciplines as provider 2 appears. the second principle levelness refers to the saying that the provider theories should contrapose to a specific level of translation study. when researchers choose a relative theory as the provider of transplantation, at the same time, a specific angle of observation is chosen. that is to say, researchers focus on a certain level in the field of translation study. the third principle adaptability refers to the saying that there is a course of adaptation, adjustment and mergence with other theories when researchers transplant one theory into translation study field. to these theories that cannot adapt with the situation of receiver, it is necessary to move them from the theory system of translation study. on the contrary, to these theories that can be adapted with it, researchers should study them further to produce a new model. it is widely accepted that linguistics has great deal to the budding discipline of translation study, as it is a discipline that studies language both in its own right and as a tool for generating meaning. this is particularly true of modern linguistics, which no longer restricts itself to the study of languages as a system of structures, but rather relates to the world around and to other disciplines as well as to the communicative function of language. catford (1965) introduced a translation study model that considers “scale and category grammar” as theoretical instruction. that begins the linguistic model of translation study. linguistic schools at the initial stage regard translation as a special form of language using. the process of translation is considered as a procedure of changing one kind of material into another kind, or changing a language production into another under the situation of keeping the same content. therefore, the rules of shifting are the emphases of translation study. equivalence is the core of translation study. just as neubert this is configuration theme + rheme. a message consists of a theme combined with a rheme. (halliday 1985:39) unlike the 7 subject-predicate distinction, the notions of theme and rheme can be used to account for the acceptability (rather than grammaticality) of a given sequence in a given context. theme and rheme are not grammatical notions. they have little to do with whether a given sequences is or is not grammatical. grammatical sequence are part of the abstract system of language. in context, grammaticality does not necessarily ensure acceptability or coherence. (baker 2000:122) in light of its structural configuration, the theme of a clause can be classified as any of the three types: simple theme, multiple theme or clausal theme. a simple theme refers to that the theme of a clause consists of just one structural element, and that element is represented by just one unit one nominal group, adverbial group or prepositional phrase. (halliday 1985:40). see the following examples: (e11) wuthering heights is the name of mr. heatheliffs dwelling. (no.52) (e2) this paper crescent was “the likeness of a kingly crown” (no.15) in the study all the english themes are underlined and all chinese topics are marked in bold for clear distinction and analysis. in addition, the theme is not necessarily a nominal group, like those above. it may be an adverbial group or a prepositional phrase as follows: (e3) from this window were visible the protors lodge and carriage road. (no.9) multiple themes is another term that halliday (1985:53) distinguished simple theme from it where the part of the clause functioning as theme has a further, internal structure of its own. there are three kinds of meaning that are embodied in human language as a whole, forming the basis of the semantic organization of all natural languages. we shall refer to these as metafunctions, and the use for them the terms ideational, interpersonal and textual. (halliday 1985:53) ideational meaning is the representation of experience: our experience of the world that lies about us, and also inside us, the world of our imagination. the ideational function of the clause is that of representing what in the broadest sense we can call processes: actions, events, processes of consciousness, and relations. as for 1 e1 refers to the first english example. 2 refers to the number of discourse that writer selected. 8 ideational themes, as defined in transitivity, only doer, environment and doing in transitivity can be used as ideational theme. in principle, an ideational element is anything representing a process, a participant in a process (person, thing, institution, etc.). (halliday 1985:54) the ideational element within the theme is some entity functioning as subject, complement or circumstantial adjunct; we shall refer to this as the topic theme. interpersonal meaning is the meaning as a form of action: the speaker or writer doing something to the listener or reader by means of language. the interpersonal function of the clause is that of exchanging roles in rhetorical interaction: statement, question, offers and commands, together with accompanying modalities. textual meaning is relevant to the context: both the preceding (and following) text, and the context of situation. the textual function of the clause is that it constructs a message. as textual themes, to which one can add “continuatives”, a small set of what are sometimes called discourse makers, such as “yes”, “no”, “well”, “but”, “however”, “now”, and so on, which signal the beginning of a new move in the exchange. (wang 2003) there is always an ideational element in the theme. there may be, but are not necessarily, interpersonal and/or textual elements as well. the typical overall sequence of these elements is: textual interpersonal ideational. (the circumflex means followed by.) (halliday 1985:54) please look at the following examples: (e4) life, however, was yet in my possession. (no. 20) (ideational/textual) (e5) quite early, before six oclock, she heard him whistling away to himself downstairs. (no.21) (textual/textual/ideational) (e6) but as if she had been done out of her rights. (no.29) (textual/interpersonal/ideational) in example (e4), (e5), (e6), the underlined part constitutes a multiple theme. in example (e4), the noun “life” carries an ideational meaning and constitutes the basic element of the theme, namely, the “topic theme”. the conjunction “however” implies a disjunctive meaning and performs a textual function. it is textual theme. but in this example, the ideational theme precedes a textual theme. similarly, in example (e5), two adverbial 9 groups “quite early” and “before six oclock” perform textual function. the pronoun “she” indicates actor and performs ideational function. in example (e6), the situation is much more complicated. the first word “but” relating the clause with its preceding text, performs a textual function. the phrase “as if” is specified as the element of the theme performing an interpersonal function. the pronoun “she” carries an ideational meaning. besides the simple theme and multiple themes, a clause may function as the theme of a larger structure, as seen in the following examples: (e7) and when he lay stretched out on his sofa reading and smoking, or absorbed in talking to anyone, these toes would begin stretching and wiggling in a curious way themselves. (no.7) (e8) as this horse approached, and as i watched from it to appear through the dusk, i remembered certain of bessies tales wherein figured a north-o england spirit, called a gytrash; (no.14) in the above examples, the “when-clause” and “as-clause” are regarded as the whole piece of theme, the remaining part as rheme. 1.1.1.2 identification of theme and rheme the theme of a simple declarative (a statement) is the most straightforward to identify. in the majority of cases, with this kind of clause theme and subject are the same. subject is the “normal” theme choice: it is the constituent which is chosen as theme unless there are good reasons for choosing something else. it is therefore said to be the unmarked theme. (thompson 2000:120) except subject, adjunct, complement and circumstantial attributive complement are also functioning as theme. see the following examples: (e9) her father had ridden over to twelve oaks, the wilkes plantation, that afternoon to offer to buy dilcey, the broad wife of his valet, pork. (no.2) (e10) in his wrath he would strike out harder than ever as he felt around from the sleeve. (no.6) (e11) all the rest well do for you. (thompson 2000:121) 10 (e12) before her, level and solid, spread the big green cricket-field, like the bed of a seat of light. (no. 24) except declarative sentence, the other main type is interrogative sentence. in a wh-interrogative, the theme is constituted solely by the wh-element: that is, the group or phrase in which the wh-word occurs. for example: (e13) what is your name? as well as wh-interrogatives, we also need to consider yes/no interrogatives. in a yes/no interrogative, the theme includes the finite verb; but it extends over the subject as well. finite verb plus subject form a two-part theme. (halliday 1985:48) for example: (e14) do you like peanuts? a further type of non-declarative clause is imperative. the basic message of an imperative clause is i want to do something, or i want us (you and me) to do something. with almost imperatives, it is the addressee that is understood as the person who will carry out the action. (halliday 1985:49) for example: (e15) lets go to the classroom. 1.1.2 topic and comment 1.1.2.1 definition of topic and comment in their paper, subject and topic: a new typology of language, li and thompson (1976) claim that languages can be classified into four basic types: (1) subject-prominent language; (2) topic-prominent language; (3) both subject-prominent and topic-prominent language; (4) neither subject-prominent nor topic-prominent language. according to them, english is a typical subject-prominent language in that the structure of sentences can best be described by taking the notion of subject as basic, while chinese is a typical topic-prominent language in that the structure of sentences can best be described by taking the notion of topic as basic. li and thompsons statement about english and chinese indicates the underlying difference that manifests itself in the sentence structures of english and chinese is, therefore, an important guideline to the current study. 11 topic and comment are universal notions that may be manifested in different ways across languages. some grammarians have used the terms topic and comment instead of theme and rheme. but according to halliday (1985:39), the topic-comment terminology carries rather different connotations. the label “topic” usually refers to only one particular kind of theme. that is topic theme. the topic theme carries the ideational functions and it is an indispensable part of a theme of whatever type. in the following discussion, the writer will introduce the proposals of some other linguists who tend to approach the concept of topic from different angles. hockett first proposed that the term “topic” represents a linguistic concept that exhibits some similarity to the syntactic notion of subject, but is not easily definable in syntactic terms. later, the notion “topic” was worked on in more detail, most by researchers interested in the study of the chinese topic. tsao is the first people who introduce the notion of topic and comment into the study of chinese. in a more recent effort, he further elaborates at great length on the notion topic from a functional perspective. (pan 1997) li and thompson claim that topic is a discourse notion that can co-exist with the subject within the same sentence, while keenan and schieffelin argue that a discourse topic refers to the proposition presupposed in each single utterance. in another direction, xu liujiong and langenden are representative of the syntactic consideration of chinese topic. (wei 2002) the study to topic in chinese concerns directly to the study of subject. there is no fixed theory about the relationship between topic and subject in the field of chinese linguistics. the